Completing Your Degree Online
There are many advantages to completing your degree online: convenient schedule, convenient location, and the increased availability of courses that you might not be able to access if you were limited only to schools in your local area. If you already have some of the credits that you need towards your degree, studying online with an accredited institution could be the perfect way for you to finish your degree.
Start with Who You Know
Whatever the reason you originally stopped attending your original school, if there is nothing currently barring you from registering for classes there, then consider starting your search for online schools with them. Keeping all your credits together at the same school will definitely save you some hassle and headache in the long run, especially when it comes to applying, the acceptance process, etc. If you stick with your original school for online courses, you have a few steps already filled in.
Stick with Accredited Schools
Make sure whatever online schools you do look into for online courses to help you complete your degree, they are accredited. There are several approving bodies that grant credit status to institutions, such as the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the Distance Education and Training Council, a specialized accreditation entity that oversees distance learning schools. Schools with these kinds of credentials will give you the best chance of transferring your credits and completing your degree.
Certain schools with credentials from a regional accreditation board may also accept your credits and issue you worthwhile ones. But before you even begin the application process, do whatever you have to do in order to get a live human on the phone and get all reasonable assurances that you will be able to transfer over all your credits (or at least most of them) and complete the degree that you want.
Build Your Own Classroom
Just like a student traveling to class in person has a specific room where their class meets, every online student needs a quiet place to devote to classwork. Many students attend classes from home, but the library or even a calm coffee shop can be a classroom if you want or need it to be.
The place you choose for your online course work can be anywhere that works for you, but it has to be somewhere where you can work, undisturbed (or at least reasonably so) for at least 45 minutes or so every day (or up to two hours every other day). Trying to study in a busy cafe or at the kitchen table while your family buzzes around you will not be conducive to your success.
Build Your Own Schedule
On-campus college courses meet every week at set times in a set place. Your online school courses may not even have a on-campus component at all. Professors can post readings, videos, and other information in an entirely virtual class space. This means that it's your responsibility to make up a schedule that works for you in order to get all of your work done. If you are taking a standard three-credit course, then you can expect about three hours of dedicated class work per week, with an additional six to nine hours of homework added to that.
You are going to have to devote at least 45 or more minutes per day, or up to two hours, four days per week in order to get it all done. The good part is that you can pick the time for almost all of this work. Depending on the nature of the online course, the instructor may decree certain times for live presentations or live chats that the entire course takes part in. They may not prove mandatory, but much like an on-campus course, taking part in these group discussions/activities will yield you more positive results.
